When a crystalline substance – such as an active pharmaceutical ingredient or an excipient – comes into contact with water, various types of interactions are possible. For the design of a dehydration process, it is therefore important to know the thermal properties of the particular sample. Thermogravimetric analysis in combination with kinetic evaluation helps determine this data and significantly reduce the time to develop a suitable temperature program.

Kinetic evaluation by means of NETZSCH Kinetics Neo offers the opportunity to determine a mathematical model, which describes the experimental behaviour of samples during thermal treatment. With regard to dehydration processes, this allows us to easily determine which temperature profile seems to be more promising – and all this without a laborious trial-and-error approach.

If the thermal measurements are performed by means of hyphenated systems, e.g., by means of a gas analyzing system such as FT-IR coupled to TGA or STA, then it is additionally feasible to find out whether the gas evolved during heating is really just water or whether further volatiles are involved.